The present disclosure relates to a rotary electric machine, and to a vehicle drive device including an inverter device that controls the rotary electric machine.
Units designed to be used in combination with one another are preferably integrated in one case. From such a point of view, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-166803 discloses a vehicle drive device in which one case accommodates rotary electric machines (motor-generators MG1 and MG2) and an inverter device (power control unit 21) that control the rotary electric machines. The inverter device includes a capacitor (smoothing capacitor C2) that smooths direct-current power and conversion units (inverters 14 and 22) that perform direct current/alternating current conversion.
In the device of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-166803, the capacitor and the conversion units included in the inverter device are arranged in different positions side by side along the vehicle front-rear direction. In such a layout, the capacitor projects in the vehicle front-rear direction, as shown in FIG. 6 of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-166803, leading to an increase in the overall size of the device. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-166803 describes a layout of the capacitor and the conversion units in relation to the rotary electric machine (refer to paragraph 0081, for example), but does not disclose a layout that further takes into account a relation of the capacitor and the conversion units with the vehicle in the longitudinal direction thereof when they are mounted on the vehicle.